


Fullmetal Aftermath

by SingingInTheRaiin



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Based on a drawing, Fluff and minor angst, Gen, Happy Ending, Post-Canon, children are interesting, daddy issues never really go away
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-08
Updated: 2018-06-08
Packaged: 2019-05-19 18:48:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,103
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14879249
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SingingInTheRaiin/pseuds/SingingInTheRaiin
Summary: Ed needs to head to Central for an important event, but is wary to leave behind his family because it feels too much like his own father's abandonment. So he decides to just take them along instead.





	Fullmetal Aftermath

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [FullMetal Alchemist Omake: Family Vacation](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/387992) by Perfectlykawaii93. 



Ed couldn’t help feeling just a little bit disappointed as he listened to the person on the other end of the phone. He waited until they’d explained the entire situation before he let out a whine just a little too childish for someone of his age and reputation. “But do I really have to be there? It’s going to be so boring. Don’t even try to deny it.”

There was a slightly exasperated sigh on the other end. “Sir, I’m just a secretary. I was told to call everyone on this list and invite them to the dinner. Whatever you decide to do or not do after that is entirely up to you.” There was a very brief pause before the secretary added, “Though if it makes any difference to you, there are a lot of people who I think would be very happy to see you. If you do decide to come, make sure to look for me. I’d love to get your autograph. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have about a million more calls to make.” There was a soft click as the secretary hung up, and then Ed slowly lowered the phone, looking down at it like it held all the answers to the universe. 

It had been ten years since he’d turned in his pocket watch, no longer able to be a state alchemist. There had been plenty of people who’d said he could keep the watch and the title and the grants if all he wanted to do was sit around in a lab and do research, but Ed had known that he’d never feel right doing that. And no matter how much he didn’t regret his sacrifice, he knew that it would make him too sad to work with other alchemists all the time. And besides that, after traveling around the world for a little while, he’d realized that he had missed home the entire time, and starting a family became his new dream. 

Before he could continue reminiscing about the past, he heard tiny pounding footsteps rapidly rushing down the hallway, and then turning the corner to barge into his office. He set the phone back on its cradle, and then turned around once he was sure that his usual big grin was on his face. “Victoria!” Then he glanced over at the clock on the mantel. “Isn’t it nap time for a certain little girl right now?”

The three year old grinned, and shook her head, letting her blonde pigtails flop around and gently smack into her cheeks. “Nah,” she told him in a serious tone. “Not if Mama doesn’t see me.”

Ed reached up to press one hand against his heart. “Ah, you sly little child. And you’re trying to drag me into your dangerous criminal plot, aren’t you?” He crouched down so that he could grab the girl, and then stood up so that he could swing her around in circles, which made her giggle. “You know that Mama’s going to blame me for this before she blames you, right? She doesn’t believe me, but you are one clever kid.”

Before she could respond, another small child was suddenly flinging themself into the office. “Sissy! I told Mama you’re going potty, but you hafta hurry back to bed ‘fore she realizes you’re not!” Then the boy stopped as he realized that his sister wasn’t the only person in the room. His eyes widened as they slowly traveled up until he met his father’s eyes. “Daddy!” He put his hands on his hips and narrowed his eyes. “It’s nap time,” he pointed out in a way that implied he was the adult and Ed was the silly child. 

Ed’s eyes widened as he feigned surprised. “What? It’s nap time? Do you mean to tell me that I could ever be so irresponsible as to forget about such an important part of the day? Maybe if I was lucky enough to get a nap time for myself I wouldn’t be as likely to forget, but sometimes life is unfortunate that way. I do truly apologize, Maes. I should never have let myself by led astray by your ruffian of a sister.”

Maes didn’t seemed convinced by Ed’s overly dramatic performance. “Daddy, it’s nap time.” He crossed his chubby arms over his chest, and stomped his foot. “We’re all gonna get in trouble.” 

Ed nodded once, and then swooped down to pick up his son in his other arm. Both of his children squealed happily as he bounced them around the room, and Maes seemed to forget about the fact that he was trying to be so responsible. Ed was grateful for anything that got his son to act a little less like an adult. He didn’t want either of his children to be forced to grow up too fast, but without any prompting, the day Victoria had been born Maes had decided that it was his job to look out for her. It was sweet, but Ed just wanted both of them to have the chance to just be children.

The three of them were all laughing together as Ed danced around the room, jumping up onto his desk and chairs without a worry in the world. Even as some of his papers slipped and fell to the floor in unorganized heaps, Ed decided not to worry about it too much. Maybe he would just use this as an excuse to give all of his students an A on that particular test. Though they’d already have the treat of getting cancelled classes if Ed decided to head to Central- he cut that thought off there. He hadn’t even decided whether or not he was actually going to go, so there was no point in worrying about it right now. 

He was so lost in his thoughts about the invitation that it took Ed a minute to realize that his wife was standing in the doorway to his office. She had her arms crossed over her chest, and her eyes were narrowed in one of her classic unamused looks. “Seriously?”

Maes immediately squirmed out of Ed’s grasp and hurried over to Winry. “Mama! It’s Daddy’s fault! I said that it was nap time but he didn’t believe me!”

Winry turned to look at Ed, who held up Victoria to cover his face. “I can’t believe you-”

“Come on, you wouldn’t hit a child, would you?” Ed asked as he continued to use his daughter as a shield. 

“I can’t believe you guys would have all this fun without me,” Winry finished.

Ed was about to continue pleading his case, but then his wife’s words sank in and he cautiously lowered Victoria. “I’m… sorry?” he asked hesitantly. 

Winry rolled her eyes as she picked up Maes, who seemed equally confused by the turn of events. She looked over at Ed with exasperated fondness. “What were you even dancing too? There wasn’t any music on in here.”

Even though the children were confused, they seemed to understand that they weren’t going to be forced back into bed, at least not immediately. Victoria looked over at Winry with excitement. “All of us dance?” She clapped her hands together, and peered up from under her eyelashes. “Please?” 

From the way Winry’s shoulders relaxed down, it was obvious that she was going to give in. “Fine. But only if we listen to something good, and not Daddy’s shi- cruddy music.”

Ed’s eyes widened, and he let out a loud laugh. “You just almost swore in front of the children,” he said in a sing song voice. “I can’t believe you just fucking did that.”

Both of the children immediately ‘ooohed’ at the same time. “Daddy just said a bad word,” Maes said proudly. Though it was hard to say whether he was proud that Ed had sworn in front of them, or proud that he had been the one to point it out. “Daddy needs a time out now!”

Victoria quickly shook her head. “No! No time out! Just dancing!” 

It was hard to say for sure which way Winry was going to lean. Let them all dance and forgive Ed for his evil offense? Or punish everyone for Ed’s mistake? Apparently there was an unforeseen third option. Winry easily plucked Victoria out of his arms thanks to the fact that her many years of being an automail engineer made her a lot stronger than Ed’s many years of being a professor. “How about just some dancing for those of us who are good?”

That was just mean. “But they’re the ones who snuck out of bed,” Ed felt the need to remind her. “Come on, Winry,” he whined. “Are you really going to punish me just because we have evil children?” 

After an unnecessarily long moment of deliberation, Winry sighed. “Fine. Let’s do this somewhere less likely to get Daddy fired though, why don’t we?”

The four of them moved to the living room, which was only slightly less of a mess than Ed’s office. Winry put down the children, then walked over to browse their shelf of record, which was higher up than the kids could reach, thanks to past misfortunes. She finally pulled one down and set it on the record player. Loud music blared out, and Ed groaned. “You gearheads have the worst taste.”

“At least the songs I like actually have words in them,” Winry said before sticking out her tongue. Then she grabbed one hand from each of their children. Ed did the same, and the four of them began spinning around the room. Victoria tried screaming out the words to the song, but apparently didn’t know any of them, because she just kept singing ‘boats’ to the rhythm of the music. 

Maes seemed amused by his sister’s antics to the point where he began singing every word he could think of that rhymed with ‘boats’. Just to ruin Winry’s music even more, Ed decided to do the same thing, and when they ran out, they all began making them up. Winry didn’t seem bothered by the fact that the music was almost entirely hidden by Victoria, Maes, and Ed. Though she was probably glad now that they didn’t live very close to their neighbors, because otherwise they would definitely be getting some complaints about the noise. 

After a few more songs, the children finally seemed to have tired themselves out, and Winry put all the records away before picking up Victoria. Ed grabbed Maes, and followed his wife into the childrens’ room. They set them both down in their separate beds, tucked them in, and then slipped away before any other distractions could come up. 

Once they were back in the living room, Winry turned to face Ed, and she had a serious look on her face. “Alright, out with it already. What’s wrong?”

Years ago, he would’ve been surprised by his wife’s perceptiveness. But at this point they’d known each other for so long that it was impossible to hide anything. He let out a long sigh, and then sank down onto the couch, motioning for Winry to do the same. “I got a call from Central. There’s going to be a big celebration in honor of the opening of the Ishvalan embassy, and I was invited to be there. It would mean leaving today, and probably not being back until the end of the week. I’m sure the university would be willing to give me the time off, but I’ve never been away by myself since Maes was born.”

Winry scooted a little closer to Ed, and reached forward to take his hand. “This sounds like a really important event. And they probably invited a lot of friends who you haven’t seen in ages because you seem to be allergic to writing letters or making phone calls. I think that it would be good for you to go. And I can take the kids into the shop with me while you’re gone. Paninya would love to watch over them while I work. You know how much she adores them. It’s okay, Ed. You’re allowed to go and do the things you want to do, within reason, because I know that in the end you’ll always come back home to us.” She pulled him into a hug, and Ed had to hold his breath to stop any tears from leaking out of his eyes.

After a while, he pulled back, and nodded once. “I should go pack if I don’t want to miss the next train. I promise that I’ll call every night.” Something about this didn’t quite sit right within Ed, about leaving while the kids were sleeping. But this was something that he needed to do. He rushed to throw a few pairs of clean clothes into a bag, along with a rolled up bundle of papers to correct while he was gone. 

When he got back downstairs, Winry was already waiting for him by the door. She smiled, and reached out to squeeze one of his hands. Then she leaned forward to give him a quick kiss. “I’m going to miss you. We all are. You should really say goodbye to the kids before you go.”

Ed reached up to awkwardly scratch at the back of his head. “I would, but I’m afraid that if I see their cute little sleeping faces, I’m never going to want to go.”

He was surprised when Winry looked past him, and had a small smirk on her face. “Oh, look who it is.” Ed turned, and saw both of the kids standing there with sleepy looks, Maes holding one of Victoria’s hands. Winry stepped out so she was next to Ed. “What are you guys doing up?”

“Sissy needed me to guard the door while she went potty,” Maes explained after a soft yawn. This whole scene filled Ed with deja vous, and he thought that his heart was going to explode by how much this was reminiscent of the night that his own father had left. And he could see the moment that Maes spotted the bag slung over Ed’s shoulder, because a look of confusion filled his honey eyes. “Daddy? Where are you going?”

Ed gulped a few times to try and stop himself from crying. “I’m just going to Central for a few days.”

Maes blinked once. “Are you coming back?” The simple question, asked in the childish little voice, seemed to stab right through Ed. Of course he was coming back! He couldn’t possibly imagine a world where anything would be able to keep him apart from his family. Before he could even begin trying to explain that, Maes asked another question. “Can I come with you?”

Obviously they couldn’t come with- Ed stopped. “Well, uh,” he crouched down so that he could look his son in the eyes, not caring when his bag slipped from his shoulder and landed on the floor. Why couldn’t they come? There wasn’t really anything that was stopping them. It’s not like Ed couldn’t afford the extra train tickets. And even if the children couldn’t attend the celebration, he’d know that he’d be able to see them again every night. And they’d probably really enjoy the chance to wander the big city. “Of course you can!” he blurted out without consulting his wife. He surged forward to pull Maes and Victoria into a hug. “What was I thinking? We should all go! You know, I just remembered that the colonel hasn’t seen you since you were babies! Well, he’s technically never seen you, but he hasn’t even heard you since you were babies! Just wait until he sees how big and strong you both are now! He’s going to be so happy!”

Maes seemed slightly startled by Ed’s loud voice, but he was pretty used to his father’s random shouting and exuberance at other times of the day, so it didn’t really surprise him to find that his father was just as shouty during nap time too. “Great,” he said before yawning again. “Let’s go.”

Ed stood up, and glanced over at Winry. There was an amused smile on her face, and for just a moment, Ed had to wonder if she’d purposely woken up the children and told them to come say goodbye to him before he left. If she had, then he’d have to thank her for it later. He couldn’t believe that he’d almost let himself leave without the most important people in his life. Winry picked up Victoria, who was basically dead on her feet, and Ed grabbed Maes. 

Winry smiled as she followed Ed out of the house, and they marched all the way to the train station, making it just in time to catch the last train of the day. On the more popular lines, trains ran much later, but small towns had to deal with less stable schedules for departures and arrivals. They didn’t even have to waste time to pay for their tickets, because Ed’s fame was still around even now, and that occasionally led to getting free stuff. 

Just a few minutes into the journey, which didn’t seem to excite the children at all despite the fact that they’d never been on a train while they were old enough to remember it, Winry looked at the seat across from her, and grinned at the sight. Ed was asleep with his head resting against the window, and Victoria and Maes were both sleeping on his lap, with their heads tilted back against his chest. And even though he was asleep, Ed had one protective arm slung around them to ensure that they wouldn’t be jostled onto the floor. It was adorable, and Winry wished that she could just take a picture of the moment so that she’d be able to remember it forever.

When they finally reached Central, Winry had to shake Ed awake, and then they each took one kid to carry with them. “Come on, we should go see the colonel first.”

“You know, someday he’s going to have you court martialed if you keep calling him by the wrong rank,” Winry warned her husband.

Ed just shrugged. “Eh, he can shake it off. He should just be glad that I don’t call him a bastard anymore.”

“But you do call him that,” Winry said as she rolled her eyes. “And in front of the children, too. You’re lucky that he likes you so much.”

Ed shrugged again. “Anyways, what difference does it make? It’s not like he’s fuhrer anymore.”

“You’re right, he’s only one of the highest ranking military officers beneath the fuhrer. But what do I know?” Winry asked with her voice full of sarcasm. 

“Not much,” Ed told her solemnly. Then he started running down the street as he realized that they were closer to Mustang’s house. Winry shouted a few choice words at him when he refused to slow down, forcing her to run to catch up with him. 

When they both stopped in front of the right address, they were slightly out of breath. Winry rolled her eyes as Ed reached up to ring the doorbell. It took a minute, but then the door swung open, revealing the lovely face of Riza Hawkeye. She looked like she hadn’t aged at all since the last time Ed had seen her two years ago. “Edward, Winry. I wasn’t expecting you.”

Ed grinned. “We’re here for that Ishval celebration thingie. And I brought everyone! Come on, let us in. The bastard colonel is going to want to see us!”

“Daddy said a bad word,” Maes muttered sleepily. 

Riza nodded. “Yes he did. And your daddy better not say any bad words in front of my Alice if he wants to retain the ability to have more children.”

Ed gulped, but then waved aside the threat. “Eh, two’s enough for me anyways.” Then he pushed past Riza, and she must have let him, because there’s no way that he would have gotten in if she was really determined to keep him out. He could hear Winry offering apologies to Riza behind him, and Riza insisting that Winry didn’t have to apologize for her husband being a moron. 

Ed hurried forward. He could hardly believe that he’d let himself forget why he usually tried to keep Winry and Riza apart. Separate, they were both intimidating, but together, they could be downright terrifying, and he didn’t want to be the one that they teamed up on. He had only been to this house a couple of times before, but it was easy enough to follow the sound of gloom and dorkiness, which always seemed to radiate around Mustang excessively. 

He knocked on the door to the office before walking in without being invited, and Mustang heaved a big sigh from where he was sitting at his desk, his daughter perched on his lap. “I wasn’t expecting you, Fullmetal.”

Ed grinned. “How’d you know it was me?”

“You’re better than you were as a kid. At least you didn’t bust my door down this time. Do you know that we had an entire section of the budget put aside just for door repairs?” 

With Mustang’s dry delivery of everything he said, it was hard to know for sure whether he was joking or not. But Ed liked to think that the two of them were definitely at a joking point in their friendship, so he decided to take it as such. “Well, it wouldn’t be as fun these days. I wouldn’t want both of our wives coming for my head.”

There was a pause, and then Mustang nodded once. “Can’t blame you for that,” he muttered. Then he stood up, carefully picking up Alice and then setting her down on the ground. “Can you-”

Before he could ask his daughter to leave the room, Maes squirmed out of Ed’s arms, and rushed over. “Hey! I like your dress!”

Mustang seemed startled by the sudden voice, but then he relaxed. “I didn’t realize that this was a family visit.” 

The grin on Ed’s face only grew larger. “I just had to bring them. I have the most adorable children in the universe, and it wouldn’t be right to go for too many years without reminding you of that fact. Did you know that they-”

Alice cut him off. “That was rude. You just implied that I’m not cute.”

Mustang reached down to ruffle Alice’s short black hair. “You have my full permission to set him on fire if he insults you again.”

Ed quickly shook his head. “No, that wasn’t what I was- I mean I would never- I mean how could you teach fire alchemy to a child, bastard? This is all your fault.”

“Daddy!” Maes reached up to tug on the bottom of Ed’s shirt. “Mama’s gonna be real mad at you.” Then he turned around to look at Alice. “Mama’s going to be real mad at Daddy,” he told her. “Wanna meet my sister? Daddy calls her the devil.”

Alice blinked a few times, clearly unused to the Elrics. “Um, sure.” She quickly glanced back at Mustang. “Can I go?”

“Yeah, have fun. But try not to let them influence you too much. I’m begging you with everything I have that you don’t end up anything like an Elric.”

Alice snorted as she peered up at Ed. “He just insulted you.” Then she grabbed Maes’ hand to tug him out of the room. “Come on.”

Once the children were gone, Ed sat down on the edge of the desk, ignoring Mustang’s protests at the sound of the papers all being shifted around. “So what’s with the impromptu visit, anyways?”

“Oh, I was invited to the celebration thing, and I thought that it would be a fun opportunity for a road trip with my family, you know? I haven’t been back here in forever. And you really do need to meet my kids better. They are the bestest, most amazingest kids ever. Well, I guess that yours can be tied with mine. But I’m only saying that so that you don’t burn me to a crisp.”

Mustang sighed. “The party isn’t for another couple of days. Why are you here now? And why in my house specifically?”

Ed blinked a few times. “Wait, what? The secretary that called me said that I’d have to show up today because it’s a multiple day event, and…” he trailed off, and narrowed his eyes. “I was decieved.”

That caused Mustang to bark out a sharp laugh. “So you were. That was probably Algieri. He’s a meddlesome brat at times. He must’ve overheard- well it doesn’t matter. I guess you’re here, so you may as well use the time to tour the city with your family. A lot’s changed since your last visit. So if you could just head back to your hotel for now, because I was expecting a visitor soon-”

The sound of Winry’s shout carried all the way through the large house. “Ed! We forgot to pack any bags! Can I borrow your wallet?”

Ed started to reach down into his own bag, but quickly came to the realization that it was not there. As he thought about it, he could remember it falling to the floor back at home, and his wallet had been in his bag. “Fuck,” he muttered under his breath. But this wasn’t the end of the world. He looked at Mustang pleadingly, even though the other man wouldn’t be able to see the desperation. “Hey, you wouldn’t happen to have some money that I could borrow, would you?”

Mustang immediately scowled. “Seriously? How did you manage to forget everything? And you still owe me money from the last time that you visited!”

“Please? Unless you want to see my beautiful wife and children starve on the streets like common rabble, and then show up to the party looking like homeless ruffians. Is that what you want? Is that really what you want?”

Mustang walked over to the office door, and motioned for Ed to follow him out into the hallway. “I’m not loaning you money for a hotel. That’s way too expensive around this time of year. We have two guest rooms, though. Winry can have one, and the kids can have the other.”

Ed tilted his head in confusion. “What about me?”

“You can sleep on the couch for being such an impulsive idiot that you actually left home without bringing anything with you. And for bothering me on my day off. And for other things that I’m sure I could think of if I really wanted to.”

He led Ed back down to the entrance hall, where Winry was waiting impatiently. Ed laughed. “So funny thing, actually.”

Riza seemed to immediately realize the problem, and she looked over at Winry. “You sure you don’t want to rethink your marriage?”

Winry groaned. “Ed, seriously?”

Mustang smirked. “Luckily for the Elric-Rockbell clan, I have graciously decided to allow you to stay here for the duration of your time in Central. But only under the provision that you don’t eat me out of house and home. Don’t think I’ve forgotten about how much you can put away, Fullmetal.”

Victoria looked over from where she’d been clinging to Riza’s leg. “Daddy’s not full metal,” she said confidently. “Just the leg.” The adults were all silent for a moment before they started laughing. Victoria scrunched up her face, unsure of what she’d said that could be considered funny. But then she decided that there were more important matters to attend to. “Auntie Riza said that-”

Ed quickly shook his head. “I’m sorry, what? Auntie who?” He looked at Riza. “Are you serious?”

Riza nodded, and then motioned towards Mustang. “And you can call him Uncle Roy.”

Mustang blinked a few times. “Um, I’m not sure that that’s-”

“You’re their godfather,” Riza pointed out. “And I’m their godmother. Just like Ed is Alice’s godfather. That would make him Uncle Ed.”

“But I don’t want to be Uncle Ed,” Ed groaned. “It makes me sound so old.” He perked up as he thought of something else. “At least I don’t have to sound old alone, huh Auntie Winry?”

Winry rolled her eyes. “Are you forgetting about the fact that I’m not Alice’s godmother?”

“Oh yeah.” Ed had completely forgotten about that. “I can’t believe that I forgot about Gracia. How’s she doing lately, anyways?”

There was a polite knock on the front door a moment later, as though it had all been perfectly planned out. “Guess you can find out for yourself,” Riza told him as she went to open the door. 

If it wasn’t for the fact that Gracia looked basically the same as always, Ed might not have even recognized the girl with her. “Elicia? Wow you’ve gotten so old!”

The teen furrowed her eyebrows. “Who are you?”

Gracia seemed surprised to see so many people crowded in the entrance of the Hawkeye-Mustang house. “Um, hello?”

Riza smoothly took hold of Gracia’s arm, and guided her away from the knot of people. Victoria made her way over to Elicia. “Hi!”

Elicia still seemed confused by what was going on. “Uncle Roy? Who are all these people?”

Ed stuck his hand out before Mustang could answer the girl. “I’m Edward Elric, that’s my wife Winry, and that’s my daughter Victoria! Isn’t she adorable?”

Victoria nodded once. “Yeah! Aren’t I ad’rble?”

Elicia sighed. “I think I actually vaguely remember you from some award ceremony thing a few years back.”

“That makes sense. Now can we please move to somewhere more sensible? I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that you’re causing a safety hazard here,” Mustang grouched. 

The whole group made their way to the sitting room, where Riza was already sitting down next to Gracia, and Alice and Maes were lying on their stomachs halfway under the coffee table. Elicia sat down on her mom’s other side, while Mustang sat down on Riza’s other side. Winry and Ed settled down on the opposite couch, with Victoria on Winry’s lap. Ed peered over at his son. “Maes, make sure you don’t bump your head when you get up.”

Elicia seemed startled by that simple parental concern. “What’s his name?”

It was crazy to think about just how long it had been since Ed had last talked to any of these people, for them to barely know anything about each other anymore. “Sorry,” he said softly. “His name is Maes. I was friends with your father; I knew him back when I was a little younger than you are now.”

Gracia was watching her daughter with concern, but Elicia didn’t seem too upset. “It’s alright. I wasn’t trying to make it sound like no one else is allowed to have that name. I was just a little surprised, is all.” She gave Ed a hopeful look. “So you knew my father? Can you tell me anything about him?”

“Probably nothing you haven’t already heard,” Ed said quietly. “But I’d be happy to do my best.”

Gracia reached over to take one of her daughter’s hands. “Maybe you guys could talk later?” she suggested. “We can at least start this visit out on a pleasant note, right?”

Elicia nodded. “Right.” Then she looked at the three younger children. “Hey, Alice, Maes, Victoria, why don’t we go play outside? It’s getting warm enough that we can dip our feet into the pool if we’re careful.”

That elicited several cheers, and Victoria launched herself at Elicia despite not knowing her. Alice quickly scrambled out from under the table, clearly having done it a million times before, while Maes ended up banging the back of his head. “I’m okay!” he quickly announced to the adults before hurrying off to follow Elicia.

Gracia smiled proudly. “Don’t worry, my Elicia is good with kids. She’ll make sure they’re all safe.”

Ed returned the smile. “I didn’t doubt her for a second.” Then he leaned back in his seat, casually draping one arm around Winry’s shoulders. “So how are you guys? It’s been ages since we’ve all been in a room together, hasn’t it?”

The five of them ended up talking for a while, since so much had happened in each of their lives. But eventually the conversation dwindled down to the typical inane small talk. At that point, Ed gave Mustang a challenging look. “Are you really teaching your seven year old about flame alchemy?”

Mustang shook his head. “No, I value my life too much. I’m mostly just teaching her some basic information about general alchemy, because she’s seemed very interested in it for a while. What about yours? Either of them going to become an alchemist someday?”

Ed shrugged. “Who knows? Kids can be tough to predict. Right now neither of them seem particularly interested, but that could just be because they’ve had no exposure to it. But I’m not going to push them in either direction. Their lives are for them to live, not for me to try living through them.”

When the rest of the chatter died down, Gracia went to fetch the children. Everyone said their goodnights, and then Gracia and Elicia took off to head back to their own home. Then Ed and Winry set up one of the guest rooms and tucked Maes and Victoria into bed, before heading into the other room to tuck themselves into bed. 

While they were lying there, Ed reached out to gently rest his hand on top of Winry’s. “I’m glad that you guys came with me, even if we did manage to leave everything else behind. And I hope that you called Paninya to let her know that she’s on her own for a couple of days. I know that I totally forgot to call the university.”

Winry sighed. “I’ll call in the morning. I’m sure she’ll be fine on her own, though. And I’m glad that we came too.”

“Alright, I have to ask. Did you wake the kids up just to send them out and guilt me into letting you all come along?”

Winry gasped. “Ed, I can’t believe that you would ever accuse me of such a thing. I’m hurt, I’m really hurt by that. Absolutely devastated.”

Ed grinned, and leaned closer to give his wife a soft kiss. “Thank you so much,” he whispered. “I’m so happy right now, so thank you.”

Winry smiled. “You’re welcome, Ed. Now go to sleep. You need all the energy you can get to be able to bother Roy all day tomorrow.”

“You know me so well,” Ed said with a quiet laugh. “I love you. Or I at least love you about 85%, because that sounds like such a good number, right?”

Winry rolled her eyes. “You’re ridiculous. Go to sleep before my love for you goes down to 70%.”

He’d only closed his eyes for a few minutes before there was a soft creak as the bedroom door was opened, and then suddenly a weight thrown right on top of him. Ed grunted as the wind was knocked out of him, and was ready to get up and murder Mustang for throwing things in the middle of the night. But he quickly realized that it was just Maes and Victoria, and he sighed. “What are you doing?” Victoria mumbled inaudibly, and then looked to her brother to speak for her.

“Sissy couldn’t sleep in a place that we’ve never slept in before. The room you put us in is really big and has a lot of shadows in it.” He bit his lip, but didn’t ask the question that was obviously on his mind.

Ed scooted back to make some space between him and Winry, and pulled back the blankets. “Alright, you guys can spend the night with us. I do understand that it can be difficult to go too long without seeing me.”

Maes rolled his eyes in a move that was identical to his mother. “Thanks Daddy,” he murmured before he borrowed under the blankets, pulling a mostly asleep Victoria under with him. Ed pulled the blankets up so that all four of them were nice and cozy, and then he closed his eyes again. How could he have possibly been stupid enough to think that he’d be able to live without this for even a few days? Ed was just so happy that he’d brought his whole family here with him, because that’s what made any place truly feel like home.


End file.
